10 - Lionel Messi - v4

[SeloBarca]

Poor game by Messi. Poor game by all front 3.
Doesnt have that exploding acceleration he had before. And the finishing is way off.

 

[evilhita666]

He clearly had asado and a can of Coca-Cola in New Year's celebrations... Sell him!

 

[Barcaman]

He had some great passes and was unlucky with his FK. Those qualities don't go away.
His movements were off again though and finishing continues to let him down.

 

[karthik]

It could be nice if he can make some runs when Neymar dribbles the ball

Decent game.

 

[Co0ter]

He's been back from injury for a while now, I don't expect him to be at his best...but how can he be tired if he didn't play for 2 months and spends 80 minutes of the game walking around?

He either has an underlying, worrying injury/condition or is just not interested. Poor finishing and not taking on his man is already surprising, since up until last season he's always done it...and he's only 28 so age shouldn't be a factor yet...but we can expect it due to the injury. The walking around really irks me though, no reason why he should be that lazy/tired.

I'm not being harsh either, we've had other players come back from injuries too (in much more impressive form) and we expect much more from them and would criticize them for lack of effort.

I expect more from Messi, and I think that's perfectly fair.

 

[Obiaseti]

He doesn't look completely recovered yet. Maybe he'll get back his form step by step. His vision, passing and free kicks are back but his dribbling and finishing aren't. Maybe he just needs some more time.

 

[George_Costanza]

Messi looked so tired, probably from partying with Pogba in Dubai

 

[KingLeo10]

something is seriously wrong with his shot, in years past, that ball he received from neymar at the edge of the box would have been on its way into the top corner of the net 9 times out of 10...instead he passes it to GK.

 

[Truthist]

He looks fatigued and is not 100% but please offer some movement off the ball. You see Suarez and Neymar working their nuts off for him and in return he offers no movement nor runs.

I know he's the GOAT but these things don't look good when you are not winning.

 

[DonAndres]

Didn't like his movement towards the end and didn't like his insistence on playing centrally but you guys are making it out to seem like he did absolutely nothing. He was easily our most effective attacker and set up a pretty good amount of chances. His first half was better than his second.

A large part of his late game disappearance today was due to the fact that Barca let the game escape from the ground. It went from good transitional passing plays to wild aerial clearances and flicks. A lot of the last 20 mins or so was just the ball bouncing from each team to the other in aerial duels or lobs/volleys and barely touching the ground. This is how the game escapes from him for Argentina a lot. There's simply no chance that he'll assert his dominance when the game just becomes complete pinball. He was walking mostly when things were going like that because he didn't bother trying to press aerially (it's definitely not his strength) while the ball was just going over his head most of the time.

 

[Chong Li]

Leo is still obviously not even close to 100%.

All that traveling, kidney stones and Xmas break surely didn't help either.

But I'm sure he'll be his usual self by the time we play Bilbao and Atleti, he's Messi after all.

 

[serghei]

He may be the most talented player out there, but he sure ain't the hardest worker, that's for sure. Suarez puts twice as much effort on the field. I hope that when the bigger games come, Messi will start to dig deeper, because strictly in terms of effort put in on a game by game basis, the decline over the years it's clearly there. You just have to see it and aknowledge it as a natural part of aging. He never was the kind of player to run a lot in games, but in recent times, his movement has gotten worse.

Not buying the "he hasn't recovered yet" thing. Hoping his movement will improve as we approach the bigger games, especially in CL.

 

[FC B]

Clearly he didin't got back his form after his injiry. Poor play for his standards.

 

[CatalinR10]

S e l l
e
l
l

 

[Richard.H]

I think a lot of you are looking into this way too deeply. He probably had a great New Years holiday filled with lots of Asada and Coke. I'm sure next week he will be lightning quick again.